CHAPTER SIXTEEN #3
‘Doesn’t matter. He wasn’t asking for help.’ Lachlan knows these rooms surrounding the ballroom well. There’s one close by he could stash Jules in while he regroups with Carrigan but none of them lock.
This place needs a fucking panic room.
‘Bodyguard.’ Jules touches his cheek. ‘Why am I Cascade?’
Lachlan patiently knocks his hand away.
‘It’s a military term,’ he half lies.
‘For what?’
‘Jules?’ someone calls out in a loud whisper. ‘Jules?’ It’s a younger voice and by the use of the shortened name, Lachlan guesses it’s one of Sorrenko’s boys, Roman. ‘You down here?’ Lachlan calmly puts a hand over Jules’ mouth when he feels him tense up to answer.
‘We should check toilets,’ suggests the younger boy, Vasily
Lachlan keeps his hand where it is until he’s sure they’re gone, then he carefully removes it, Jules’ breath rushing against his palm.
‘Sorry.’ Lachlan scans around now that his eyes have adjusted. ‘I’m gonna take you to the staff stairwell and get you to the East Wing.’
‘I want to stay with you,’ Jules whispers.
‘No.’
‘Please?’
‘Jules—’
‘I feel safe when I’m with you.’
Lachlan huffs. It’s not one of the kid’s better attempts, although the word kid feels for the very first time ill-fitting given that they’re toe to toe, and Lachlan guesses he has one more summer before Jules is taller. ‘You’ll be safe in the East Wing.’
His radio crackles to life. It’s Fenwick. ‘Control to Kestrel. Come in Kestrel.’
Lachlan answers quickly to avoid attention. ‘Kestrel here, status update.’
‘Where are you?’
‘Control, give me a status update.’
‘I’m en route to the ballroom.’ Fenwick tells him, fraught and breathless. ‘Right now.’
‘Negative. Stay in the control room.’
‘Where’s the boy?’
‘Cascade is with me.’
‘Give me your location.’
‘Negative. Local frequency is not secure, repeat, not secure.’
‘Tell him to make it stop.’
Lachlan hears more people coming, so pulls Jules further down the corridor. From inside the ballroom, the panic is escalating. He only just gets Jules quietly into a supply room and clicks the door shut before the lights come back on. All told it was less than two minutes of total darkness.
‘You all right?’ In the light, he scans Jules all over, whose light brown eyes are fixed on Lachlan in ways that will become worrying later. ‘Jules?’
‘Y-yeah.’ The boy nods, gaze glassy. ‘Are you?’
‘I’m fine.’ Lachlan waits until the people outside have passed by and then he emerges, holding Jules by the wrist. ‘Stay with me.’
‘Was that Fenwick?’
‘Keep quiet.’
‘What did he mean, tell him to make it stop?’
‘The storm has him rattled,’ Lachlan tells Jules, peering carefully around the corner before leading towards the staff stairway. It’s clear. ‘Come on.’
‘Shouldn’t you get back to the—?’
‘You’re my priority, you and Mimi. Walk faster.’
‘My father’s gonna be furious.’
‘Let him.’
‘Lachlan, why is my codename—?’
‘HOLD IT!’
Lachlan turns sharply, moving Jules behind him as he looks down the staircase. Fenwick is there, radio in one hand, gun in the other.
In less than two seconds, Lachlan reads all he needs to know.
‘Fenwick,’ he says, evenly. ‘It’s good you’re here. I need your help.’
‘Tell him to stop it.’
‘What’s the situation with the comms?’
‘Don’t handle me,’ Fenwick says, his wide eyes fixed on Jules. ‘Make him stop doing this. He’s controlling it. He—’
‘You’re compromised. Put the gun down.’
‘Make him stop, Lachlan.’ Fenwick sounds afraid.
Lachlan reaches back to make sure Jules is firmly obscured, fully covered.
‘Make him stop what?’
‘This. The storm. The blackout. He’s doing it.’
‘It’s weather, Fenwick.’
‘How do you think he fucks with the trackers?’ Fenwick spits out, like Lachlan’s being deliberately slow. ‘He’s a Paranatural!’
Fenwick’s lost it.
‘Julian is a kid, and it’s our job to protect him.’
‘No, that’s your job,’ Fenwick utters, dangerously unstable.
His gun is lowered, which is all that keeps Lachlan from pulling his own.
‘My job is to manage the household, and I can’t do it when he’s causing this, locking us out, keeping us in the dark!
Do you know what they can do when you push them, Lachlan?
How powerful they really are when you hurt them?
I’ve seen it. They used fentanyl, they used heroin…
’ Fenwick gives a manic laugh. ‘Nothing works but hypochlorite.’
‘We can talk about whatever you want once we get him safe.’
‘Hypochlorite breaks down their mycelial network.’
‘Fenwick! Get it together.’
‘I was there for Project Spectrum,’ he goes on, moving ever closer up the staircase.
‘I was there when the storm hit. I carried my man out when that bitch fried his eyeballs, when she melted everyone from the inside out to get away. It starts with a storm. They call it to them, like witches. You have to make him stop, or we’re all dead. ’
‘OK,’ Lachlan simply says. ‘That’s fine. I’ll lock him in his room.’
‘Knock him out or I’ll shoot him.’
Lachlan’s radio comes to life. It’s Rook. The secondary repeater has rebooted. ‘Kestrel, come in. Location on Cascade, repeat, we need a location on Cascade. Do you have eyes on?’
‘I need to answer,’ he tells Fenwick.
‘Knock him out.’
‘Do you know what would happen if I did that?’
‘The storm will stop and no one will die.’
‘Mason,’ Lachlan says again, voice softening. ‘Let’s just—’
Fenwick lifts his gun.
But Lachlan is much faster, and he’s always been a crack shot.
He shoots Fenwick twice, one round through each shoulder. The impact throws him backwards and he disappears down the staircase hard.
Lachlan pivots immediately, shoving Jules up the stairs ahead of him and cutting sharply left at the first corner, pinning him flat against the wall.
‘Stay here,’ he orders.
He radios in his position and requests immediate backup, tells them Fenwick has gone rogue, before edging around the corner, scanning the bottom of the staircase.
‘You’re too close to see it,’ the older man groans, gun still in hand.
Slowly, Lachlan descends. ‘Drop it and surrender. I’ll get you to medical.’
‘Julian is a Paranatural.’
‘Why do you think that?’ Lachlan asks, stalling.
‘He can short out the electrics.’
‘So can lightning.’
‘He fucks with the trackers.’
‘You sound insane, man.’ Lachlan is counting down until backup arrives. ‘I wanna help you out but the shit you’re saying is pure paranoid delusion.’
‘It’s the truth.’
‘No, you’re compromised.’
‘Why do you think Penhalyx keeps him locked up like this?’
‘You’ll bleed to death unless you surrender.’
‘He’ll kill me anyway.’
Lachlan knows that’s true. Fenwick has signed his own death warrant.
‘I’ll plead your case,’ Lachlan offers, whatever else, doesn’t want the guy to die in this frame of mind. ‘I’ll—’
‘Ever since I swallowed his come, the nightmares won’t stop.’
Lachlan’s jaw drops. ‘The fuck did you just say?’
But Fenwick never gets to answer because the stairwell explodes with movement. Backup teams flood in from both ends, top and bottom, cavalry arriving hard and fast. Fenwick is violently tased before he can get another word out.
‘SECURE!’ Carrigan calls out from below, her gun trained on him.
Lachlan quickly returns to Jules who is surrounded by units in a protective huddle. ‘The Cove?’ Lachlan asks one of them.
‘Intact and secure. What happened?’
‘Fenwick lost it. Jules, you OK? Look at me. You’re safe now.’
The boy blinks slowly. ‘What’s a Paranatural?’
?